The Windy City
by Redheaded Witch
Summary: Chicago is always overlooked... but the windy city is more then what it's cracked up to be. What is hiding behind that faded green marquee of the musical everyone wished would return... RxR
1. Chapter 1

**New story! Yay, The glorious Windy City... what does it have in store...**

**RxR**

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><p>Deep breath, belt, another breath intake, belt... Voice crack.<p>

Cursing she hit the wall, her chest moving up and down, up and down, she was out of breath as the soft music played on her computer. Punching the pause button she grits her teeth and walks upstairs.

_One... Two... Five... Seven..._ Counting the steps she goes up and down, up and down, much like the scale that she had to sing. This was much more difficult then she remembered when she was younger and had heard the lyrical music that entranced her beyond belief.

_Left turn... Three steps..._ She had to calm down, the slight obsessive compulsive nature of her counting getting the best of her thoughts. Catching a glimpse at the clock she had exactly twenty three minutes before her parents were home.

_Twenty three minutes... Forty eight seconds..._ Standing in front of the full closet mirrors she stared at herself, disheveled beyond belief, having cleaned the entire apartment in less the thirty minutes and along that time tried singing.

_Not going to work..._ Closing her eyes the warm stage lights were felt again and the soft pang in the heart got her angry, taking a deep breath she opened her eyes again and pushed back the mess of brown hair and kept going.

_Dust... Three books...six picture frames... Twenty two light bulbs..._ This habit of hers was to count anything, to list off random things, she was stressed, she didn't even know what was right or left. Walking over to her computer her hand wavered, duster in the other hand at the playlist currently on "pause"

"Screw this," muttering to herself she typed in another musical and played the overture, smiling at the obscure musical that she wished as still on broadway.

_Thirty one previews... Thirty three regular performances... Last performance May 15th, 2011..._ Listing off the information her heart rate slowed down and the counting ceased, looking around she threw the used duster in the trash and sat down on the couch. The computer sitting behind her on the credenza, she just sat and listened.

_"Welcome to Wonderland!"_ she listened as the music blurred into the background, getting up she walked over to the window, spotless after her freak out earlier, and placed her forehead on the cool material and listened to the cars honk below her, the windy Chicago air keeping the floor to ceiling glass cool and refreshing.

Looking towards the Loop she sighed longingly, her family loft was in Printer's Row and down below her a few buildings away was the old shut down theater of the musical she so desperately wished would open again. A knock on the door and keys opening the locks didn't make her move at all.

"Honey?" her parents walked in and saw she was just standing there her forehead on the glass, as they found her most days when they were out.

"Hi," one word, they sighed, she had been like this for years, shutting herself off to the world below and not even giving anything a shot.

"What did you do..." their daughter didn't move.

"Cleaned," they both sighed and walked past the computer and her mother paused the music. She turned her head slightly and looked at her parents, the two business people didn't get her and she just turned back to the window.

"Are you just going to stand there, or tell us why you didn't go out with your friends like you told us," she just sighed.

"They went to Mag mile I didn't want to go..." she lied simply, the half truth there easily sliding by.

"And? You love shopping," her dad knew her better then her mom and she just rolled around on the cold glass. They saw the full extent of her appearance, sunken in eyes, messy hair, sloppy clothing.

"Honey are you _really_ okay?" she just glanced at her mom and shook her head she didn't want to tell her she had another OCD attack.

"I tried to sing today," her parents frowned, they didn't like that.

"What have we told you?" her mother sighed and put her bag on the counter and rubbed her face. She was frustrated with her daughter's persistence with singing.

"Elizabeth what have we told you?" she looked away and ran a hand through her messy hair.

"That singing isn't practical," she muttered and shuffled her bare feet on the hardwood, her toes scrunched together as the cold wood became warm from her body heat.

"Honey let her sing," her dad turned to her mother and she just gave him a look and she scoffed, picked up her bags and headed into their room.

Her dad walked up to her and put his hand on her back and directed her towards the couch and he sighed as he sat down. She quietly took a seat beside him and started to chew on her thumbnail.

_Six minutes... Fifty two seconds..._ She was starting to have another counting attack when her dad saw it coming and started to rub her back.

"Calm down, We know you want to sing, why don't I call one of my co workers... He knows someone who can give you voice lessons," her head whipped towards him.

"Really?" her face brightened and he nodded, "Thank you!"

Hugging him tightly she rushes to her computer and exits out of the music player and shuts the laptop, turning back to her dad she smiles.

"Thank you for understanding me all the time," rushing off she goes to her room and picks out clothes, today was still a fine day, there was no problem with getting ready now. Quickly walking to the shower she looks in the mirror and realizes that her usually odd colored hair was more dull then normal and thought for a minute and hopped into the hot water.

Humming all the way in and out the water soothed her throat and lungs and while wiping off the steam that had condensed on the mirror she saw her eyes had brightened to their normal blue color. Pulling on her jeans and everything else she quickly runs to her room pulling the pea coat she always wore and colorful scarf from her grandmother on, trying her best to hide from the prowl of her mother.

"Where are you going?" turning around she gave her best smile towards the very person she was trying to avoid.

"Out, I got a text from Hailey, okay! Toodles!" she quickly shut the loft door and smiled, taking a deep breath she walked towards the elevator, pulling out the tangled mess that resembled headphones and her phone.

_One thousand, two hundred and sixty four songs... Sixty seven musicals, and five albums of rock music..._ She berated herself for counting again. The elevator music was causing her eye to twitch and she still was unknotting the headphones.

_Eight more floors..._ Counting the buzz of every floor she waited longer and longer, she was contemplating actually going to visit her friends who were out eating and then going to a Second City performance. Her phone buzzed.

-At Starbucks outside ur building, Hail-

_Perfect timing..._ Walking out of the small electronic box she hurried towards the green mermaid coffee shop and felt the cold touch her cheeks and smiled, looking back the faded green marquee screamed her name.

_Not today... Not today..._ Turning back she walked in and saw her blonde friend sitting patiently at the bay window table.

"Took you long enough Elle," she had a small coffee cup in hand and raised an eyebrow, dropping her bag on the table she just shrugged.

"Well sorry, I had to convince the parents to leave me alone," she felt like this was being fake, not saying she had another OCD attack, or the fact she was singing again even after the... Incident.

"Has Brad talked to you at all?" Elle closed her eyes and just ground her teeth, this was the thing that she did not want to have brought up.

"No. Brad has not talked to me," she said bitterly, the boy was trouble, walking trouble, the rich preppy boy of the school whom was her boyfriend for two years and then he magically dumps her for no reason what so ever.

"Oh... Well Elle you are going to come with me, we are going to see Second City, and you are going to get over the pretentious bastard who dumped you," her friend stood up and walked out of the coffee shop.

"ELLE COME ON!" she rolled her eyes at the obnoxious girl and walked outside to meet her, pulling her coat closer she took one last look back at the marquee, her friend noticing she just smiled.

"It'll come back for ya, Elle, I know it will," she then took her friends hand and dragged her towards The Loop.

She loved Hailey like a sister, she had known the girl since the third grade when she sat next to her, stole an Oreo then gave her the chocolate pudding in her lunch box as a "compensation" and then went on a ten minute ramble on how she learned the word.

From then on forth she came the next day and she took Hailey's hawaiian punch and gave her a juice box, and then she said to her "bargain" and with every day they would trade and say a new word.

"So Hail what's today's word?" the blonde stopped and looked around, they had started to run out of words and so they were making them up as they go. Or would choose simple ones, today was no different even when Elle went to London they had emailed each other a word.

"Window," Elle scrunched her eyebrows and laughed, Hailey gave her a look and turned to her with arms crossed.

"Fine, then how many windows does the Empire state building have in Midtown Manhattan?" she looked at her friend and rolled her eyes.

This was another thing they had, one piece of trivia that was apart of the daily word, and Elle _knew_ trivia, sighing she walked along with her best friend until they reached the Loop.

"Six thousand and four hundred windows," looking back her friend laughed and they arrived at the small improv theater.

"Okay then missy... How many lightbulbs are in the Gershwin Theater's marquee?" my face fell and she hissed.

"Oops... Sorry I forgot..." she smiled and turned back and saw that the theater had since disappeared, that had been the last show her and Brad had seen together, and was the last show he told her that she was supposed to be there. It had been three weeks since they had broken up for an unknown reason and it had been that long she has been in this slump of a life.

"I'll be fine," she stood in front of the small improv theater and sighed.

"You'll be in that show Elle, and Brad will wish he never did what he did... Whatever he did," she looked at her friend who just rolled her eyes, "Besides, no one has seen him in weeks."

_Three weeks... Twenty one days...five hundred and four minutes... thirty thousand two hundred and forty seconds..._ She turned to her friend who already had the door open.

"Three weeks already as it is," she took a deep breath and walked in. Brad where are you... It's been that long since you said we couldn't date anymore... Where are you?

"Besides... Where could he have gone to? His life was you," she walked into the theater and felt a strange feeling about what her friend had said.

"I thought we were done talking about Brad," she shot a glance to Hailey and she shrugged.

"Just saying, he even told me 'I'll never leave Elle, even if I die I'll haunt her' and you know Brad he wasn't the typical guy... Whatever happened, it's bad." she paid for their tickets and they sat in their usual two tables from the back seats.

"Something Bad..." the words came out of her mouth, and the slow tunes of _Something Bad_ and _You aren't getting the whole story!_ Rang through her head.

_Something Bad... Is happening in Oz..._ The song continued, as the curtain rose. And the thoughts of Brad faded with the house lights.

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><p><strong>Hmmmm<strong>

**RxR**

**~Talley**


	2. Chapter 2

**Installment two! I like Brad.**

**RxR**

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><p><em>He fidgeted in his seat as his girlfriend was outside getting something from one of the stands, this theater was giving him the creeps. Looking around he saw that everyone was comfortable but he felt himself getting dizzy and this never happened to him before. Elle walked back her eyes shining brightly and he smiled.<em>

_"What did you get?" she just rolled her eyes and settled back into her seat, he just watched her intended, wanting to tell her this strange feeling, but knowing it would ruin the night._

_"The CD what else? And this," she held up a little hat keychain and I softly laughed and looked up towards the lights which were softly pulsing._

_"Is there... Anything strange going on here?" she raised and eyebrow and blinked._

_"Brad... Nothing is wrong, why? Are you okay?" he watched as her eyes flashed, he knew she was probably counting right now, sighing he turned back towards the stage, holding her hand he gave one squeeze and smiled._

_"I'm fine... Just paranoid, and there is nothing you have to worry about okay?" she rolled her eyes and the music started up again and he felt in his gut that something was going to happen._

_The lights he could see only effected him and the theater become more echoed then normal, something was off about the entire place and his girlfriend was unaware of any of it. He sighed and shook it off as nerves, but what was he supposed to be nervous about? There isn't anything nervous about seeing a show... But this show had been different, looking over to elle he smiled, for some reason, this show was much much more different._

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><p>He was laying down on the boards, staring up at the extremely dusty bubble that was still in position for another show to begin, rolling over he looked at the door and blinked.<p>

_Three weeks..._ He groaned and slowly got up looking backstage someone was sitting in a chair reserved for the stage manager.

"How long have you been laying there?" he ran his tongue over his teeth and scoffed as he watched his friend eat a piece of pizza.

"How long have you been there Chad?" his voice hallow and echoed in the theater, his friend got up and just laughed.

"Long enough to know you still don't know how to get out of," he motioned with the half eaten pizza slice up and down his body, "your situation"

He walked forward and took a swing at Chad and his hand just went right through, his friend shivered and turned around to face Brad again.

"That feels weird don't do that again," he growled at his friend's remark.

"Shut up, you told me you would bring her here!" that's when he saw Chad's expression change to annoyance and anger.

"You really think I can get her anywhere _near_ this building? Hailey always has this place on lockdown, sorry bud you have to get your chick here on her _own_ haven't you tried _leaving_?" he pointed towards the door and Brad looked confused, he really had not tried that before.

"I don't think I can, Chad," he looked down and pulled out of his pocket the little hat keychain Elle had given him before this happened.

"Dude seriously, just go see if anything happens? You can't be stuck in here all the time now can ya? Being a ghost and all," Brad gave him a 'shut up' and walked towards the doors, with every step becoming more and more hesitant.

"What if someone sees me?" he turned to chad and his friend was already gone, sighing he put his hand on the door and walked into the sunlight, he could feel the warmth but the people that were out didn't even see him, they just screamed as the door opened by itself.

"That answers my question..." he looked up and saw the windows of Elle's house, his heart told him to go right up there, hug her and make up. But he had been gone for three weeks, he didn't even know if she was okay.

"Dude just wait," he sucked in a breath as Chad was again next to him also staring up at the windows and he turned to leave.

"Sometimes it's best just to wait dude, come on, just go back inside and wait, I'll see if I can get Hail," sighing he took his friend's advice and headed back inside, this time not even bothering opening the door, instead he just slipped on through.

Looking around the dusty lobby he felt miserable, he had failed at everything up until he met Elizabeth, or Elle as she liked to be called and finally his parents were proud of him. Two years, _two years_ of fixing his failed personality and finally was back on top, and now he is a _ghost_ haunting a theater for no reason what so ever.

"How did this happen?" he screamed into the theater, he just woke up and found himself like this, he was still in the theater and when he tried to open a door his hand slipped right over the doorknob. That's when he ran straight to Chad's house screaming his head off at anyone, the only person to hear him was his friend. Who momentarily had a panic attack when he had told him that his body was gone.

Then that's how it has been three weeks of daily visits, trying to get Elle to come here, it was Chad's idea to send the "breaking up" letter to her so the shock wouldn't cause her to go into an attack. That was one thing he _did not appreciate_.

Elle had a problem, she was systematically a counter, someone who knew random information and yet could funnel it out at any given moment, a memorizer of sorts. But she was also a closeted OCD, just with cleaning, and it only happened when she got stressed, and sure enough as he sat down in the chair he last got to hold her hand, she was in a three week long battle against it.

He had helped her control the OCD, and she had helped him become more deep and not so shallow and self centered towards his parents money and their lifestyle.

Groaning and again starting to cry he held his face in his hands and just broke down, fate was never on his side for anything, and this was no exception, first his parents, then his girlfriend, and now he is supposedly "missing" when in reality he feels like he is stuck in a strange version of limbo.

He remembered everything up until the very last song, then it was gone, he slammed his seat and wiped the tears away, he wouldn't cry. But in his current situation he just sighed and walked back up to the stage and laid down, once again staring at the iron bubble that dangled above him.

His thoughts were trying to get him to do something else, try something else, but he just wanted to be in that singular moment that he loved more then anything he could ever imagine.

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><p><em>He was more transfixed on his girlfriend during the love song between the prince and the green girl, he was just staring as her eyes watered and she snuck a peek towards him and she blushed.<em>

_"I will always love you," he kissed her cheek and she bit her bottom lip, handing the little keychain over to him he gave a quizzical look._

_"To remember what this night means," she whispered back then shushed him, looking down at the small silver object he saw it was indeed the little hat, and dangling from it was the little "Wicked" logo, he couldn't help but smile._

_He glanced back at her and saw she was completely lost to the show now, the girl who loved it up there and yet was beyond frightened and had the confidence of a peanut, this was her dream and yet he always had to push her to at least try something, the closest he ever got to something like that was having her do an improv class, which he admits she was much better at then him._

_"you'll be there," she glanced at him and raised an eyebrow._

_"Oh really?" he could only smirk as he watched her shift closer to him and his smile grew wider and wider._

_"Of course," she looked away and pursed her lips._

_"I'll believe you when it happens, right now... We watch," she then shifted to the other side and continued watching the musical. He just scowled and looked back down at the little keychain smiling more and more._

_Then his vision began to grow fuzzy, looking up he couldn't see with the clarity of minutes before and that started to worry him, the final song was being sung and he didn't feel right. He put the keychain in his pocket and turned toward Elle. She was looking up at the stage and he tried to blink the cloud away and yet nothing happened._

_"Brad?" her whisper was screaming in his ear, he kept his eyes shut and opened them again and this time everything was dark. Everything was gone._

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><p>Sucking in a breath he only felt more miserable after reliving that memory, as he did every day for the past three weeks, getting up he decided it was time to go face the outside world once again, wondering if this was just a good idea at the time again.<p>

"Time to face the fact that this isn't going to settle itself," he looked around and jumped off the stage and over the orchestra pit, landing he took off running, he had to see her face.

He had to see her face for as long as she was his and he was hers, stopping a bit in the middle of the sidewalk he looked back at the marquee, the haunting overpass that reminded him of what type of world he was trapped in.

Up high a figure watches the young man run towards the loop, they smile and start to fold the laundry that was currently in the clean basket, she sighed, knowing that the young man was running for her daughter she had to get over the fact that what had happened was a mistake. A simple miscalculation and now there was nothing she could do but watch. It was all that there was to do.

"Honey!" her husband called from the office and she ignored him, just watching the boy weave out of sight, he would get out of this mess, but not without getting scathed, the same went for her OCD daughter.

_Sometimes... All it takes is a change in the weather_, looking to the sky she watched as the wind pick up and a storm begin to brew. The weather having forecasted that it would become a storm cell she sighed. Her daughter didn't like lightning, but Hailey would know what to do, she was more content on her current project at hand.

This was why she didn't like her daughter in theater, it made everything so dramatic that it was beyond any sense "respectable". But her husband knew otherwise and her daughter was the one who made the decisions, not her, she never was the one for being able to get through the thick skull that walked around the house depressed most of these days that had gone by since the boy decided to vanish.

_But vanish_, wouldn't exactly cover the word, she looked at the marquee and her eye brows furrowed, he didn't vanish for her or his imbecile of a friend, Chad, but he seemingly had vanished for everyone else.

Stuck in limbo, the words themselves seemed almost foolish to anyone, even her, she just shrugged at the thought and turned back towards the office.

"What is it!" slowly her voice faded and outside the thunder started to rumble across the sky and the rain started to pour down. Little colorful umbrellas popped up almost immediately as people walked on the sidewalks, patterns, colors, and logos were bobbing up and down as the rain began to pour harder.

The sky grew darker and the light faded completely from the once happy shining sky, the mystery was just beginning, it needed the mood lighting for it anyhow.

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><p><strong>Mommy dearest?<strong>

**RxR**

**~Talley**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it took so long! Got a _little_ busy... Anyway here you go. **

**RxR**

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><p>She really had no idea why she was sitting there so long after the show, Hailey had tried to get her up but the mind of the teenager was far off in memories. So instead the friend sat down and waited for Elizabeth to come back to reality.<p>

"You know that he gave me the best smile while we watched the final scene," finally the OCD girl looked up at her friend, dull eyes stared back at her however.

"I know, Elle you've told me already," scrunching her eyebrows Elle could only shake her head at the silliness of the entire situation.

"It doesn't matter, what happened has happened... Nothing can change the fact he's gone," surprising Hailey the girl got up and put on her coat in haste. However the girl paused when a loud clap of thunder echoed in the silent room.

"Oh boy," Hailey walked over to the frozen Elle and gently pushed her back down into the chair, already seeing that her friend was counting the number of seconds between lightning and thunder.

"Elle... Elle," she waved her hand in front of the catatonic girl's face and growled at seeing she was non-responsive.

"Elizabeth!" her best friend however was long gone within the chaos of her mind, cursing furiously at the memory of Brad. But looking at the window she nearly screamed at the sight of a wet teenage boy looking in.

"Brad?" she rushed to the door but with stunned silence she watched as the boy entered through the wall and not the door.

"Oh dear god," feeling faint Hailey quickly sat down on the nearest flat object, which so happened to be the floor.

"Hail, please be calm, deep breaths..." looking up the boy saw the glazed eyes of his girlfriend, "Elle..."

Stepping towards her Hailey tried to grab onto him and her hand slid right through his forearm, startling her and making the room spin.

"Ghost... Ghost Brad... Brad... Is a ghost," she felt her world spinning and fell flat on the floor.

"Elle look at me!" he tried to touch her face but his hands passed through and her face, shock was on his face at her unfazed face after what had happened to Hailey. Suddenly however she had looked right in his eyes before shaking her head and looking at Hailey.

"Hail? Why are you on the floor?" her friend was stunned as the girl stood and looked at the raining skies.

"Don't... Don't you see him?" Elle whipped her head to her friend, confusion ripping across her face.

"See. Who?" Hailey could tell that Elle also was on the verge of an anger outburst, but she pressed on still seeing Brad standing by where her friend once sat.

"B-Brad..." she watched something snap in her friend.

"Oh nice, now you want to mock me? _Fine_!" she pushed past her friend and opened the door, shivering at the cold spray that hit her face.

"Elle! No you'll get sick!" Brad ran after her but he stumbled over Hailey much to his surprise.

"See ya later, Hailey," Elle didn't even turn around when she walked out in the ice cold rain without an umbrella or hood up.

"She's going to seriously kill herself one day," Hailey grumbled and looked back at the spectral image of Brad.

"You are on your own in trying to get her to see you, since after just that she most _definitely_ doesn't see you," the two stood only looking at the semi ajar door that reminded them of her sudden outburst.

"She needs to get back to the theatre," his words surprised her and she put her hands firmly on her hips.

"Really? She never even wants to walk on the sidewalk by the place, you really think you can get her to come into the theatre, plus, it's in the 'do not walk unless you wish to see an emotional breakdown' lockdown," she smiled at him and started to get out an umbrella.

"But, Hail... This, I don't know what this is!" she shrugged and stood by the door.

"Well you better figure it out quick, you never know if you'll get stuck like that," she stepped out in the rain under her black umbrella, charging after the direction Elle had left. Leaving Brad in shock and in disappointment at both Elle and Hailey.

_This is going to be a bumpy ride..._ His thoughts scared him and he ran out of the place back to his dusty prison.

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><p>Still walking around within the rain Elle's mind was for the first time blank, she wasn't counting, she wasn't doing anything but looking forward and letting the rain soak her clothing. The cold felt nicer then the emotions running in her body. Hailey had pulled a nasty prank on her, first taking her to Second City and now saying Brad was following her around as a ghost.<p>

"Stupid," she didn't shiver when the lights of cars finally disappeared and she was back on her street after a fifteen minute walk from the building she had been in.

Her body had gone quite numb from walking in the wind and rain and when she stepped over the threshold of her house the image of her mother standing in front of her with a scowl didn't deter her from the path to the bathroom.

"I see that you had fun," she only turned to her mother with an icy stare and looked at the woman.

"I hate you," her mother gasped and she walked away feeling no remorse, she truly did hate the woman on some accounts, she was the very person that wanted more from her yet there was never anything she could do to quell such a want.

"Elizabeth..." the teen noticed the hurt in her mother's voice but she proceeded to strip from her soaked jacket and sweater.

"Yes, It is true, I've had fifteen minutes in the cold and about eighteen years to decide it, and I _hate_ you for what you are, which is an overbearing bitch," Elle internally was taken aback by her words and her mother stepped back with a set look on her face as her teenage daughter passed her to the bathroom.

"Elizabeth, you don't mean this, I bet you are just acting up," her hand was on the bathroom door knob when Elle heard the comment. Infuriated at the even possibility that she was 'acting up'.

"No! I'm _not_ acting up, I'm being_ me_ since Brad _vanished_," slamming the door her mother stood at the door and heard the girl starting to cry inside, slowly breaking the older woman's heart one sob at a time.

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><p>Hailey had lost sight of Elle after she had turned the corner leaving the girl to look around the city with the umbrella hoping that her best friend had gone home and not somewhere stupid. Suddenly she had reached the theatre that caused the entire problem and looked up at the haunting marquee.<p>

"This is all your fault," hissing out her eyes darkened and saw the lightning flash and a spectral image of a woman standing on top of the marquee, startling the girl she only caught out small features. A hat, dark clothing, and a broom.

"Oh god," Hailey was frozen in place when the woman looked down at her and when the thunder cracked above her the woman's mouth began to move.

"_He is mine, and will forever be_," the voice was haunting and when the lightning flashed again the woman was gone, leaving Hailey to shiver in fear at what she had witnessed.

She had witnessed the witch.

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><p><strong>Oh my.<strong>


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